Jeju Korean restaurant for sea snail haejangguk: Hyeopjae On Ttukbaegi

When you come to Jeju, at some point you start craving a hot bowl of haejangguk (hangover soup), right? That day I was in the mood for rice with soup, went looking and ended up at Hyeopjae On Ttukbaegi (협재온뚝배기). We'd eaten all sorts of things on the trip, and a hearty Korean meal like this in the middle of it all was such a nice change. A hot bowl of soup really is the best thing in the morning.

Hyeopjae On Ttukbaegi hours and parking

Hours are 08:00 - 21:00, break time is 14:00 - 17:00 and last order is at 20:30. It's closed every Monday. There's a free public parking lot about a 1-minute walk from the restaurant, and it's only about 2–3 minutes by car from Hyeopjae Beach, so the location worked out well when we were looking for somewhere nearby to eat.

A cozy, relaxed atmosphere inside

The inside had a cozy, comfortable feel overall. It felt less like a tourist-spot restaurant and more like a place locals drop into for an easy meal, so I found myself thinking, is this what a real local favorite feels like? haha It got my hopes up even more.

Ordering everything from bomal haejangguk to the kids' haejangguk

As you'd expect from a bomal haejangguk place, the health benefits of bomal (Jeju sea snails) were written up on one side. Read something like that once and you somehow feel like you're eating something good for you lol The menu is simple and mostly haejangguk, and we ordered the bomal haejangguk, the abalone dried-pollack soup and the kids' haejangguk! Everyone picked exactly what they wanted, one bowl each 🤭

The seaweed stem side dish I kept reaching for

Basic side dishes come with the meal, and my pick here was the miyeok-julgi (seasoned seaweed stems)! I ate it without thinking much of it and it was so good I just kept going back for more lol It's a sneaky rice thief — I lost count of how many times I picked at it 🤭 If you run short on side dishes, you can help yourself to more from the self-service bar off to the side.

A meal that worked well with the kids

Since we came with the kids, the owner brought out some gim (roasted seaweed) for them separately. Thinking ahead about little things like that — the owner is genuinely kind 🥹 My hungry kid couldn't wait for the haejangguk to arrive and started wrapping rice in the gim and inhaling it lol This is a baby who'll polish off a bowl of rice with just one sheet of gim 🤭

Clean, slightly spicy bomal haejangguk and rich kids' haejangguk

The bomal haejangguk was clean flavor itself! The broth was clean yet slightly spicy, the kind of taste that keeps pulling you back the more you eat. My husband's pick was the abalone dried-pollack soup! The refreshing broth was spot on, and he must have liked it, because he emptied the whole pot down to the bottom lololol

Can you see how much bomal there is? 👀 They really don't hold back, it's loaded! Looking at it again my mouth is watering all over again lol

The kids' haejangguk is made with Korean beef bone broth, which must be why the broth was rich yet mild and nutty. The seasoning wasn't strong either, so it was just right for kids. The meat was tender and there was a decent amount of it, so once I mixed rice into it both kids went into unlimited-inhale mode lol When the kids eat this well, mom is satisfied with just that 🤭

After eating all sorts of things in Jeju, a hot bowl of soup with rice partway through was such a good meal. The kids ate well and left full too, so if you're craving haejangguk in Hyeopjae, Hyeopjae On Ttukbaegi is worth a stop. We left very full and happy!